Joy, Light, & Everything Pumpkin Spice

Welp, we all know what’s about to happen, right? I’m gonna make a reference to the artificial jet lag created by the time change and that I kinda like it. And then I’m gonna say something like “it must be that time of year for another sweet potato curry, washed down with a pumpkin stout, and then chased by a slice of pumpkin cheesecake” or somesuch.

So let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?

Time’s a’wastin’ because I need to be finalizing the music for our Joy and Light concert in December and preparing for the Fall Texas Toot workshop in East Texas and trying to make time to watch our London City Limits concert video because we spent a lot of time on the concert and the audio/video editing and it’s pretty danged good! You should watch it. Details are on our website.

So, you see, rather than go on and on about not being able to find any pumpkin spice contact lens solution, I’m gonna get back to work! And think about the pumpkin spice ice cream I might have during a break.

See details about about our upcoming Joy and Light concert below!

And Happy Thanksgiving!
–Danny

P.S. Don’t forget: TEMP CDs make great holiday gifts! Purchase CDs at our concert venue or order from our Recordings page!

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Joy and Light: Delights of the Season

Saturday, December 9, 2023 at  7:30 pm
&
Sunday, December 10, 2023, 3:00 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue

Hosted by Arts on Alexander on the campus of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 
2111 Alexander Ave, Austin, TX 78722.
Visit the Arts on Alexander 2023-2024 events on the AoA website.

Admission $35 general; $30 seniors (60+); $5 students with ID
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of diverse holiday music through the ages. Cultures across the centuries have celebrated this season of expectation and rebirth, and we are contributing our share with medieval chant and joyous carols, magnificent motets, sweet Celtic songs, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.

 Much of the music for this concert comes from Southern Europe, including folk tunes from France that have remained popular through modern times as well as newly written pieces based on French chant. The enchanting Sephardic songs that we have chosen for the Chanukah section come from Turkey and Morocco. In addition, we will present music by the “newly discovered” Vicente Lusitano, a mixed-race Portuguese composer. Active in the 16th century, Lusitano has been described as the first published Black composer.

 In addition to the haunting motet for 5 voices by Lusitano, we have created a “medley” on the popular 14th-century tune In dulci jubilo (also known to modern carolers as Good Christian Men, Rejoice), using settings by different composers of the German Renaissance and Baroque: Michael Praetorius, Hieronymus Praetorius, and Dietrich Buxtehude. The settings range from verses for 2 parts, 3 parts, and so on, up to 12 different parts.

 The British Isles are represented by a variety of popular ballads and folk songs from England and Scotland, all penned by that long-lived composer, Anonymous. As usual, there will be a few pieces composed and arranged in the last few years using some of the styles of Medieval and Baroque repertoire.

 Tim O’Brien, David Lopez, Cayla Cardiff, Erin Calata, Page Stephens, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Jenny Houghton, Ryland Angel, Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon, and Jenifer Thyssen are among the featured soloists, and we are happy to have both acclaimed harpist Therese Honey and kantele virtuoso Viktoria Nizhnik featured in our small orchestra.

 Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music. Encompassing 700 years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart. We coined a new word to describe the concert: multilicious!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

Éirinn Go Brách, Y'all!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Check out the pretty unusual Irish selections on our Celtic Trinity and Celtic Knot CDs! And of course, after St Patrick's Day, you can listen to the Scottish and Breton music as well, completely guiltlessly!

Most TEMP CDs are $21 USD and include free shipping within the U.S. Shipping charges will apply to international orders.

Have a wee listen to a couple of audio samples below. Click on the  CD images to hear more and to purchase CDs!

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light.
May good luck pursue you each morning and night!
Danny

I See Green People!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Check out the pretty unusual Irish selections on our Celtic Trinity and Celtic Knot CDs! And of course, after St Patrick's Day, you can listen to the Scottish and Breton music as well, completely guiltlessly!

All TEMP CDs are $20 USD and include free shipping within the U.S. Shipping charges will apply to international orders.

Have a wee listen to a couple of audio samples below. Click on the  CD images to hear more and to purchase CDs!

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light.
May good luck pursue you each morning and night!
Danny

Christmas is icumen in, lhude sing St. Nick!

I almost feel like we are a big-box store, focusing on our Christmas concert now when there is so much that happens before that: the Texas Toot workshop this weekend, then Thanksgiving, then the St. Cecilia Baroque Festival, and then our four days of rehearsals, and then our concerts. I can’t wait! And then…well, there’s much more. At any rate, we aren’t having Black Friday Sales, so I’m relieved to remember that we aren’t a big-box store! More soon!

Danny

An Early Christmas in Europe

 Friday, December 12, 2014, 8:00PM
Saturday, December 13, 2014, 8:00PM
First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Ave., Austin, TX

 Sunday, December 14, 2014, 3:00PM
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX

Last chance to get discounted Partial Season Subscriptions for the remaining 4 concerts of the season!

Partial Subscriptions for 4 concerts are $108 general, or $90 for seniors.
Click on the "Buy Partial Season Tickets" button below.
Single tickets can be purchased by clicking on the button below
and are also available at the door, payable with cash, check, or credit card:
$30 general, $25 senior (age 60+).
Discount prices for students with student ID are available for purchase
at the concert door for $5. 

It’s already time for another Early Christmas! Join us as we explore the mystery and intangible essence of Christmas as TEMP puts its unique stamp on joyful carols and traditional songs from Western Europe and the British Isles, where many of the musical traditions we hold dear at Christmastime originated. TEMP will perform joyful and beautiful selections from these countries and others with innovative arrangements for solo voices, small chorus, harp, violin, flute, mandolin, viols, and lute. 

The familiar theme of the Nativity from the shepherds’ perspective—their wondrous and terrifying experience with the angelic host and their subsequent gathering around the manger to adore the Christ-Child—figures prominently in most early music Christmas repertoire, as do the themes of the Mother and Child and the New Year. We will present two iconic 12th–century works from France illustrating this theme: “Orientis partibus” and excerpts from the Play of Herod.

Lively works from an anonymous Spanish composer (“Falalanlera”) and an exciting double-choir work by Giovanni Bassano illustrates the importance and the beauty of Advent and Christmas in Renaissance Spain and Italy. Not to be outdone, however, are the works of composers in the Lowlands, whose diverse, virtuosic compositions for Christmas celebrations remain unparalleled in sheer beauty. The little-known Flemish composer, Guilielmus Messaus, created mini-masterpieces in this genre, and TEMP is happy to bring these to light for our audience. We are also glad to announce the return of our favorite Dutch carol: We haven’t performed “Herders hy is geboren” in several years, and its return is long overdue.

Our Christmas concerts are never complete without a little Celtic and English influence! Our versions of the “Christ-Child Lullaby” and “Drive the cold winter away” are in the program this year, as well as other favorites from the Celtic traditions. We are proud to feature nationally-acclaimed historical harpist Therese Honey, who will play the popular 18th–century Welsh “Nos galan,” which is very similar to one of the present day’s most ubiquitous Christmas carols. Which one? Come find out!

Our featured soloists include Jenifer Thyssen, Stephanie Prewitt, Meredith Ruduski, Jenny Houghton, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Brian Pettey, Thann Scoggin, and Daniel Johnson. Our instrumental soloists include Bruce Colson (violin), John Walters and Jane Leggiero (viols), Marcus McGuff (flute), Susan Richter (recorders), and Scott Horton (lutes). 

 Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid evening of music. Encompassing eight hundred years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart.

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

TEMP’s Upcoming Performance — Yule, Britannia! Christmas Music in the British Isles

When imagining the Christmas season in Britain, scenes of Victorian period sleigh rides, Ebenezer Scrooge, and Ghosts of Christmas probably dance through your head. But the Texas Early Music Project will celebrate wonderful earlier Christmas traditions in Britannia with a sequence of music from the late Medieval period through the 19th century. From haunting Medieval carols and English psalm-tunes to traditional Irish dances and Celtic lullabies, TEMP puts its unique stamp on these beautiful and joyful selections with innovative arrangements for solo voices, small chorus, harps, violin, flute, and mandolin.

Among the Medieval pieces on the concert, TEMP will feature the well-loved "Ther is no rose of swych virtu" and also a lesser-known gem "Lullay, lullay: Als I lay on Yoolis night” with Scottish provenance, (although its source is from Cambridge University), and a hauntingly beautiful melody and story. The Christ-child, as a baby, asks his mother why she doesn’t sing to him as she rocks him and why she doesn’t tell him what his life will be like when he is older. Her response is that she knows very little about him except what Gabriel told her. The dialogue is bookended by a narrator who relays what she saw on that Yule night.

The Renaissance portion of the concert will feature a rousing psalm-tune, "While shepherds watched their flocks by night," the 16th century predecessor of Handel’s popular setting, as well as the very popular "Good people all, this Christmastime" ("The Wexford Carol"), arranged for solo voice, strings, and flute.

The English traditional music and Celtic music will include a few favorites from past years, such as "Baloloo my lammie," and "Ye Sons of Men." Newly arranged pieces include a lively instrumental by the 17th century Irish harpist Turlough O’Carolan, ("The O’Rourkes Christmas") for plucked and bowed strings and an Irish traditional song, "The seven rejoices of Mary" for solo voices and instruments. Throughout the years, the English traditional song "Drive the cold winter away" maintained its popularity and will be featured for the first time in a TEMP concert.

TEMP is pleased that Abby Green, a specialist in Gaelic songs, will be joining as a soloist and ensemble member, and TEMP again is proud to feature nationally acclaimed historical harpists, Therese Honey and Becky Baxter. Featured soloists include Jenifer Thyssen, Stephanie Prewitt, Meredith Ruduski, Abby Green, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, Daniel Johnson, Paul D’Arcy, and Chaz Nailor.

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Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid evening of music encompassing 500 years of festive beauty that will delight your ears and heart!

PERFORMANCES

of Yule, Britannia! Christmas Music in the British Isles

• Friday, December 9, 8PM, First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Ave.

• Saturday December 10, 8PM, First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Ave.

• Sunday, December 11, 3PM, First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

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TICKETS

for Yule, Britannia! Christmas Music in the British Isles & other TEMP performances

 – Last chance to get discounted Partial Season Subscriptions! –

‣ purchase online

‣ by phone (512) 377-6961

‣ or at the door.

See you there!